"Heptanesia (meaning: cluster of seven islands) is an ongoing body of work, through which the artist explores the poetics and idiosyncrasies of the city of Bombay / Mumbai. In these images, Calia draws on the imagination that resulted in the coalescence of seven islands into the artificial landmass that is modern-day Mumbai.

Viewing the city as a fictional object, the artist builds its story by strolling within the network of its roads and lanes and capturing objects, textures, patterns and displays. This body of work sources from the artist's subjective and crafted account of Mumbai – displaying a range of photographs, from documentation of the ‘readymade’ and to composition of ’scenes’. In between these ends lies a spectrum of interventions, in which objects might have been added, reshuffled, or even moved into a different context. By tweaking the city’s material reality, the artist attempts to ‘hijack the real’. Often, his co-culprits are the people he encounters in this exploration – turning his camera into an instrument of playfulness and closeness, rather than extraction and intimidation.

While surrealist and situationist in character, Calia attempts to explore Mumbai’s oneiric and sculptural quality, as well as its urban condition." Philippe Calia, 2022